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30 May 2015

So here we are, it's 11h30am, the bumper is chromed at least and just like every years, a flood is expected all the way down to the track... But however when you gotta go, you gotta go !

I can not help but think about my Japanese friends who often have no alternative but to ride on wet track. Besides, according to some professional drivers, their rain tires are just bluffing! From my side, my 205 wide Yokohama A048 will get the job done (I hope). Rather than face the highway and its terrible connections of hell 500 km (yes I swear! It is a hassle with the camber and offset!), I decided to go through the back roads, anyway I will not go much slower. (yes I talk to myself there is no music!)

Once at destination (finally!), I could see a very familiar head, good old William the W.Autosport boss, the undisputed specialist about Nissan in France. This is also within its walls than the Civic and myself spent the night after having swallowed a good burger with a completely unreasonable amounts of fries with the friends from the 60. Many thanks to William and Severine for their warm welcome! m (_ _) m

Well well well, truces nonsense! Let's get into the nitty-gritty, the track! Magny-Cours Classics Days all that ... Bah voila, here we are, this is the big day and as expected it's raining! Well that's it and we can do nothing ... I did not have a lot of mods to compare with from the last time so whatever. The sessions were more or less wet but never really soaked! Apart from this one where we were not really many ... on the track.

So not even a shadow of concern, apart from a noise that makes me think that the rockers 230000 km olds are beginning to tire a bit.

Unfortunately not keen enough at registration, I could not put myself into the usual group, and thus pull the floss with friends, it's only a postponement! This does not stop me any time to have fun like crazy! (thank you Gregory the cameraman at the moment). I allowed myself this little montage where we clearly see that ... Pantera works well !

I have not taken any laptimes but most important is that I have really enjoyed it and giving fun to the crow was (believe me) as cool ! About that, seeing people standing up to greet the car in the cooling lap was ... really, really ... really very moving! (a little too much maybe ...)

I also wish to greet all the curious people who came to talk with me, it's always a pleasure to share with passionate people. Then obviously friends of long dates who will recognize them-self.

And while we are in the acknowledgments, a huge thank you to the photographers! Your photos are a great help. Including those in corners where you can get an idea of how the suspension work! Do not hesitate to visit their respective pages.

After a lap from my friend, he made me drive his car (thank you Sir for this ;) ). The car felt very easy to drive so you could have plenty of confidence hoping from a corner to an other. The brakes never fad even if to me, the pedal feeling could be improved. Anyway, after having had some fun in the first part of the track, it was time to dive in the notorious Caracciola Karussell corner, then this... Happened. In order to avoid this in the future, a custom spacer will be build.

Even having torque well the setting bolts, the upper knuckle plate slipped away from its initial position. We had few laugh as we knew this had to occurs. Fortunately it wasn't in a high speed corner ! After having tighten much more above the 12 lb-ftaskedby Skunk 2 for the setting bolts, we could have another lap with my friend at the wheel. Thank you for letting me test the Civic, it was a pretty good day.

7 May 2015

Hello, before I thank and greet all the people I could see or those without this weekend would have been less perfect than it was, I wanted to give you a little insight (because I could not take pictures of everything and I certainly forget some stuff) of some "tinkering" to what I faced before the Classic Days.

Alimentation:

On tracks like Magny-Cours, long curves create a fairly substantial centrifugal force, unfortunately the OEM tank designed in the late 60s did not provide for such treatment! So I had sailed a minimum of 30 liters of fuel to be certain to have a great fuel alimentation in curves.

The solution, a surge tank and its low pressure and high flow pump that simple. In a modular worries (yes I know it may sound a little strange for this kind of car) but most of all, is was a weight distribution concern the tank seats between the diffuser and the shell.

Suspension:

As before each track days, the suspension had a bit of cleaning and control, so I could spot few bugs such as a big play in the caliper slides. A more serious camber setting solution has been made too and the antirollbar bushing as been replaced as well.

Rust:

The longest part has been the rust eradication... What appeared to be a simple sheet replacement, was in fact a long-term work as you can see on the photos.

Here is what to kill more rust.

I have not even taken the time to picture the restoration result, but here is a little preview.

A bit of cleaning to the under panel wasn't too much.

Following this little incident (click on incident) I had to find a new bumper but no way I put this overweight 8kg on the front axle, the solution was therefore in its counterpart in fiber. By itself the gain was not enough, so I had to make worthy mounts to further reduce the weight note and this is not less than 4.5 kg won from the front. Replacing lighting (night lights and turn signals) it would be possible to win 800gr ( They weight 1.6kg by them self ! Yes you read correctly, these little things are extremely heavy for their size!)

Engine:
From the engine side, nothing special except a set of Honda OEM igniter wiring and spark plugs. Of course an oil replacement was done too.

The stainless steel Supersprint manifold (yes) was beginning to suffer from the time ravages (especially those of a bit of out track last summer) so it was time to replace it.

Once the new one in hands to bring him my little mods, what was my surprise to discover internal welds protruding more than 5mm in ducts! I had to use the Dremel and craftsmen tools to put these things in optimum configuration.

The gearbox had a little leakage problem from the selector shaft seal, that's no problem, replacement of the said joint.

My great shift lever is truly ergonomic however the joint command is really not the same opinion, and I must believe that the centrifugal force and other body movements undermine it. The play was becoming really too much, this time it was too late to order the new part at Honda but after a quick glance in the stock, I could find my happiness, no more play at all !

Papot's Garage

Welcome to the Papot's world ! I'm a track addicted driver, Motorsports enthusiast and traveler. You can follow here my evolving oldschool Honda Civic and my trips with it around the world on Papots-Garage blog. You can also follow the last Motorsports news or appreciate Motorsports stuff I like mainly focused about Japanese brands and scene on Papots Motorsports blog. #Enjoycarlife